In this special Hometown edition, we decided to do something a little different. We turned the lens inward, asking our own authors to take us back to the places that shaped them. Instead of dispatching them to unfamiliar territories, we sent them on a journey home: to the streets they first learned to walk, the landscapes that informed their dreams, and the communities that witnessed their becoming. The result is a collection of stories that are at once deeply personal and universally resonant, a testament to the fact that “home” is never just a single point on a map.
This issue is a mosaic of memory and place. Niusha Khanmohammadi beautifully articulates the complex privilege of returning to her native Sweden, a place of comfort that no longer quite fits the person she is today. Toyah Höher from Berlin offers a raw, poetic meditation on the city’s overwhelming duality, a web that is both beautiful and trapping, where finding your own corner is a constant struggle. From Hungary, Anett Gyenge-Rusz guides us through the sensory richness of Törökszentmiklós, where the memory of a grandparent’s garden becomes a sacred space of belonging.
Kyriaki Mallioglou shares her experience of growing up in Bucharest, a city in constant flux, where a dual identity was forged between the chaos of its markets and the quiet love of her family. Finally, Fiona Panduri gives us a fiercely honest look at Peja, Kosovo, a city of breathtaking beauty and frustrating limitations, reminding us that to truly love a place is to see it whole, its pride and its problems, its history and its hopes.
Together, these writers explore what it means to leave, what it means to return, and how the places we come from are woven into the fabric of who we become. We hope their stories inspire you to reflect on your own hometown, and the mark it has left on you
Image made by Fiona Panduri
